Pages

Monday, April 13, 2009

Gaeng Massaman - Thai Massaman Curry

Thai is my favorite non-Indian cuisine. The variety of noodles, rice and curries in Thai cuisine is amazingly huge. The more I dug into it, the more I liked! Massaman curry or Gaeng Masaman is a curry from South Thailand. Masaman means "muslim". The dry spices used in this curry paste are thought to be brought over to Thailand by Muslim traders. Hence the name. I use Maesri curry pastes in my Thai cooking at home. The end result has always been wonderful and taste just like the restaurant version. They come in convenient little one-time-use cans and make Thai cooking a breeze. I read somewhere that many Thai restaurants in the US use Maesri pastes too!

Info on the curry and the recipe is from here. The curry paste has a LOT of oil. So I used coconut cream to fry the paste in, instead of more oil as the recipe suggested. I normally add fish sauce as well but I cooked this specifically for the vegan event and so skipped that here.

Update: Apparently, the massaman paste contains shrimp paste as well. I checked the ingredients on the Maesri tin and it does not list shrimp paste as one of them. I do believe it is vegan.

Into a heated pot, put about 1 tsp of coconut cream and the massaman paste. Fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add the thick coconut cream that's on top of the coconut milk can. Mix and simmer until the oil separates.
Add potatoes, onions, tofu, the remaining coconut milk from the can, bay leaves and cardamom pods. Add some water, if too think. Mix well. Cover and cook on low for at least 15-20 minutes.
Add palm sugar and tamarind paste. Simmer for a few more minutes.
Serve with fragrant jasmine rice or rotis.

Vaishali - thanks for stopping by and the nice comment! will try to participate more in the forthcoming iavw events :)

Pooja - thanks! I think red curry and green curry are the more popular of the Thai curries. I like this one just as much :)

Cham - yeah, the curry sure looks fiery hot but it was not. I think had I fried longer, it'd have been really spicy! tinned curry pastes are definitely convenient and this particular one tastes authentic too.

yummm...my mouth is watering looking at your snap.You have captured it so well.You have a very nice blog (sorry i used to visit it as a silent visitor)Thank you dear for dropping by & for that lovely comment.Do come again.

Oh Just look at the colour of gravy ..makes me drool over it ..I need my share now LOL..I guess Thai cuisine is spicy , but I remember going to a Thai restaurant few years back in US ,they would ask us to rate our preference for hotness in red curry on scale of upto 10 ..we would end up oredering them to make 7/10 but still that used to be enough spicy and hot for us LOL.. But the taste it still lingers on our mouth err mind..hugs and smiles

Thanks for dropping by Vani... You have an awesome space shall keep stopping by for more... As you mentioned, Thai cuisine is vivid and exhausting sometime, Lovely dish, perfectly cooked... gotta try this for sure... I am a Thai cusine fan ;)